An ordinary water dish is not particularly suitable for use in small animal cages. Such a dish does not have sufficient water holding capacity unless it is of undesirably large size and many animals can easily tip over an ordinary dish. Consequently, a variety of dispensers have heretofore been designed which transmit water from an external container through a wall opening of the cage at a rate matching the animal's consumption of water.
Such dispensers or water founts are typically attached to a wire mesh wall of the cage and include a water supply container with an opening at the lower end and a flow transmitting member which extends from the opening at the bottom of the container into the cage through the mesh wall. A small initial outflow of water creates a vacuum at the top of the container that prevents further flow except for such flow as is needed to replace water withdrawn from the flow transmitting member by the animal.
Water founts of the above described type as heretofore marketed include the flow transmitting member, structure for attaching the fount to the wall of a cage and a specialized water supply container specifically designed to interconnect with the flow transmitting member and attachment means. Diameters at the lower end of the container and at the portion of the flow transmitting member which engages with the container must match and the configuration of the container is designed to accomodate to that of the clamps, brackets or the like which secure the fount to the cage.
The specialized water container is typically the most bulky component of the assembly and adds substantially to the cost of the water fount. In addition to the cost of the specialized container itself, packaging and shipping costs for the assembly as a whole are increased by the bulk of the container. Many such water containers are prone to breakage and replacement of a broken container results in still additional expense.
Thus a water fount that does not require a specialized water supply container would be highly advantageous. Components for such water founts could be marketed more economically and in a substantially more compact form.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.